New Horizons
Synopsis Five strangers are called to a research facility in Cardiff, Wales, where they are subjected to bizzare experiments that push them beyond normal human limits. A plot is unraveled to use special chemicals in their blood to generate energy. Dozens of apparently hypnotized scientists chant as they persue the party: "The Chains must be broken." The facility is attacked by government and vigilante forces, which they are lead to believe are the enemy. A battle ensues while they work to solve the mystery of the facility, and end up destroying the alien android who was posing as its administrator. A charming member of Torchwood comes to their rescue as one of their number falls in battle, taking them back to a mysterious set of doors in his headquarters. They gain entry to the doors to find out that it is the manifestation of a TARDIS, and their heritage derives from the ancient and powerful Time Lords, which allows them access. A hologram activates aboard the TARDIS, an AI that is a total copy of the vehicle's owner-- only the original is nowhere to be found. Plot Winston Foreman, an astronaut trainee working for the European Space Agency, recieves a note offering him £10,000 to take part in a special experiment. Hidden in his London-area hotel, the international thief known as "Sebastien" recieves the same, shocked that someone has discovered his location. Also hiding out in the area, an American soldier on the run from her duties in the Middle East, calling herself 'Kayna', also recieves the missive. An MI:6 agent whose day job is a ballet dancer, working undercover to ensure Britain's security, also recieves the message, getting special permission from her superiors to go and investigate the unusual claim. All of those invited agree to go. They meet at New Horizons Research Laboratories, greeted by the head of R&D, Sasha Babbage. She takes blood samples from all of them, then escorts them to an opulent hotel room, filled with comfortable beds and delicious food. Despite the best intentions of some, they pass out, and awaken inside sleeping chambers of sorts inside an underground portion of the lab. They begin to go through a series of tests, designed to sample their skills in problem solving and combat. They ultimately must fight together against a mechanical spider, which takes them quite a time to defeat. They acquire some weapons and armor here, including an unusual device that creates ear-shattering sonic blasts. After the combat is complete, Doctor Babbage arrives and tells them that their abilities in combat were being tested in order to possibly repel a 'terrorist group' named 'Torchwood' that has been threatening their operations. She then tells the four that when their blood is exposed to a specific kind of 'catalyst' energy, it begins to generate energy of its own, turning them essentially into living batteries. By studying their blood, New Horizons hopes to do "great things"-- and she claims that Torchwood wants them and that technology for itsself. As this all is happening, a young IT professional named Ravi is asked to come down to some of the laboratories where the research is being completed. One of the refridgerators that stores "samples" has been malfunctioning, and the scientists ask him to take a look at it and see if he can repair it. While not specialized in such things, he relents, going into the large, walk-in unit to examine the malfunction. As he is examining it a much larger malfunction occours outside, and the door is shut, trapping him inside as chaos unfolds in the labs. After a brief rest, the other four are awoken from their sleeping chambers and told to prepare-- Torchwood had indeed launched an invasion. They equip themselves to the best of their abilities and make their way up, trying to hold fast against trained UNIT soldiers who are sweeping the compound for people. A firefight ensues almost immediately, and Winston attempts to revive a dying soldier, trying to use his own PDA as an improvided defribulator. The soldier dies anyway, but Winston keeps his broken PDA as the four push forward. More UNIT soldiers arrive, and they devise a trap using the unusual sonic device they had obtained. Pretending to be trapped in a cabinet, Winston lures the soldiers into the break room and activates the device, deafening them long enough for the others to capture them and remove their uniforms. They examine the rest of that floor, dressed "incogneto", only to find one of the labs populated by scientists who seem to be, for lack of a better word, 'zombified'. They slowly persue the team, chanting in unison, "The chains must be broken". The horde chases them into a particular lab, where a rather desperate pounding was coming from one of the fridges. They release Ravi, and he appears to be the only one of the original New Horizons staff not effected by the bizzare mind control at play in the others. They are persued through the lab once again until they run into a dashing man who happens to be from Torchwood-- Captain Jack Harkness puts up his hands and says that he is not their enemy, and attempts to explain the situation as he sees it: New Horizons is actually a front from an alien presense, attempting to harvest their blood for its energy. The UNIT soldiers were "on loan", having agreed to turn the facility over to them when Torchwood was done with it. Before he can explain anything further, their conversation is interrupted by a very irate Doctor Babbage, who hurls all manner of insults at Captain Jack-- shortly before she begins to hurl lightning. Another fight ensues, the others peppering her body with gunfire, only to reveal that it is a facade-- underneath was an android of sorts, glowing with a bright blue energy from its seams. She hurls deadly bolts of lightning at them in return, critically wounding Kayna. Eventually, Sasha is defeated, leaving her crumpled body on the lower level of the labs as more UNIT soldier storm inside. Jack then gets to reveal the last part of his explanation to them-- he was told their location by something called "psychic paper", or a special paper that was receptive to strong psychic influence, displaying what its user wishes. It was displaying the location of the labs repeatedly, and he believed it had everything to do with something in his headquarters. He rushes them back to his headquarters in Cardiff, where he reveals a free-standing pair of wooden doors simply at rest in the middle of the room. Every time he attempts to open it, he is shocked to death as soon as he puts his hands on the doors. However, Jack being Jack, he gets over this fairly quickly. Still, he has a feeling that they would know how to open the door, seeing as how someone lead him to them. His feeling proves correct as "Sebastien" places his hands on the doors and they to his touch without incident. Past the doors, in a pocket dimension only wafer-thin on the outside, is a beautiful, regal control room-- the bridge of a TARDIS, which Jack recognizes from his journeys with the Doctor. The ship appears to be near-death, however, and needs to be re-energized. Still holding a sample of their blood from New Horizons, they go below decks to do just that, pouring their own blood onto the Heart of the Tardis, allowing the ship to re-energize itsself with their essense. As it restores itself, the TARDIS then attends to Kayna, who is clinically dead by then-- it spurs her body's own regenerative processes, bringing her back to life with a new addition inside-- a second heart. The ship's systems all begin to re-boot, and chief among these systems is a hologram, set to act as an auto-return pilot to bring the ship back to its owner. The hologram reveals his name to be 'The Professor', and he is an exact 'mental upload copy' of the ship's owner/operator, the "real" Professor. He has no idea who they are, but says that the TARDIS may have contacted Jack's psychic paper in an attempt to find help to restore its systems. After a scan, The Professor detects something quite alarming: all of them have Gallifreyan DNA, so all of them are descended from the race of the Time Lords. Ravi is apparently also a descendant, his name hidden on the list of test subjects should the four others have declined the test. The Professor decides to set a course for Gallifrey to settle the matter. Along the way, he bemoans the fact that his database is radically out-of-date, having not been updated for twenty-five years. This is all the more startling when he arrives at where Gallifrey is supposed to be, only discovering that the surrounding space for several parsecs is completely empty. Gallifrey is gone. There is no trace of his "real" self. And now he has five young Gallifreyan desendants who are very confused. Back on Earth, Sasha Babbage attempts to re-activate her damaged body when two men in black suits and sunglasses walk up to her. With cold, uncaring voices, they tell her that she has run out of chances, and that she must suffer judgement for failing them. The much larger, more brutish of the two men, named 'Diagamma', picks up her head and crushes her metallic skull, leaving the viewers with chilling images of what is to come. Cast Winston Churchill Foreman - Charlie Bright "Sebastien" - Duffy Adams Ellen - Veronica Henry Kayna - Jill Bright Ravi - Brian Sasha Babbage - (NPC) Captain Jack - (NPC) The Professor - Art Damon Crew Writer/Director (GM) - Art Damon Special Effects - Vue6 References * The "sonic device" that Winston finds is a weaponized Sonic Screwdriver that resembles one designed by The Professor. * The Seal of Rassilon is quite promenant in the design of the Professor's TARDIS, and always adorns the outside of the 'doors'. Story Notes Myths and Rumours Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors Continuity See Also Category: Gallifrey Five Category:Stories featuring Time Lords